Description: Small base of chalky white limestone, with rectangular depression on top
(w:
0.125 x h:
0.09 x d:
0.10). A portrait base, chipped on all edges and without its upper left-hand corner.
Text: Inscribed on the face. The photograph shows some lightly cut marks near the lower left-hand
corner and bottom edge - apparently N and xxxv.xx, presumably the work of a doodler.
Letters: Probably first to second century CE, ave. 0.01; rho with a square bowl, L for ἐτῶν; stops on either side of L in line 2 and
between name and article in line 3, a bar above the L in line 2.
Date: Probably first to second century CE
Findspot:
Cyrene:
Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: area E12/E11, 2.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Cyrene Museum, Storeroom of the American excavations
(Inv. no. 73-227)
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds, 2012
Demetria (scil. daughter) of Ammonios, aged 10. Arria (scil. gave the statue of) her daughter.
Commentary
Demetria was probably dead when commemorated here. She and her father have Greek personal names, but her mother has a Roman nomen; that could mean that she came of a family with Roman citizenship, but may not do so since, at the likely date, some local families used such names as if they were Greek personal names. The statue must have been small even for a child, and this, with the poor quality of the stone and of lettering, suggests a family of modest means only.
Bibliography: White, 1973, 205 n.16, whence SEG 26.1836, PHI 324728; Reynolds, 2012, A.31, whence SEG 62.1795.14.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. Face (Donald White)
Fig. 2. Face (Donald White)